Managing a sales team is difficult, especially during the last quarter of the year. As a manager, your role can be essential to your company’s success. It’s more than just monitoring quotas and meeting target metrics. You are in charge of coaching your reps, helping them get to the level they need to be, and ensuring their morale stays high.
As the team leader in sales management, you can make or break your sales organization. The role comes with a fair share of pressure. But by following a few of these steps and these sales team management best practices, you can become a sales manager who leads and sets yourself and your team up for success to end the year strong.
Being a sales manager can be very challenging. You have to gather resources for your team, manage reports coming in, and still have to make sure your sales numbers are on pace to where they need to be. If you want your sales team to reach their performance goals, one-on-one meetings can be very useful. It can allow you to get to know each team member individually and give you some time to learn more about their long-term and short-term goals.
Growth is important for many people, and as a manager, it’s important for you to guide them to where they need to be so they can reach that next level. Your sellers will appreciate the time you took to get to know them and their goals. It also will provide them with a safe space to open up and express their feelings, which can be helpful during difficult times.
Having a logical strategy gives your sales team direction on the team’s goals and what needs to be done to get there. Having an overall goal that is transparent to your team makes everyone aligned and aware of what everyone is working on in the team.
Leverage the one-on-one meetings with sales reps we mentioned earlier, and develop a personalized strategy based on your sales rep’s role or account they are working on. Each client’s needs vary, so you want to ensure that your sales reps are in the best position to succeed. By focusing on individual team members, you can get a clear picture of what issues your team is facing. You can track team-wide barriers, as well as nail down individual issues.
Highly effective sales managers know that clear, measurable goals drive success. One of the most critical aspects of sales management is defining goals that align with company objectives while keeping your team motivated.
Use the SMART goal framework to set objectives:
By setting team-wide and individual goals, you create accountability and give your reps a roadmap for success.
Not all sales activities yield the same results. As a sales manager, part of your job is ensuring your reps focus on high-impact activities that drive revenue. Here’s how you can help your team prioritize:
Every industry has a unique sales cycle. Whether you're in B2B SaaS, professional services, or e-commerce, understanding the buying process is critical. As a sales leader, you should guide your reps on tailoring their approach based on:
Sales management is no longer just about intuition and experience—it’s about leveraging data to make informed decisions. Successful sales managers use data analytics to drive team performance and optimize processes.
To effectively lead a sales team, you must measure the right KPIs. Here are essential sales metrics to track:
To integrate data into your sales management process:
Sales are known to be a beast and can burn out even the hungriest of sales reps. It’s possible that your sales already has a compensation package, but to keep your team motivated, having some incentives in place can be helpful. Money can be the ultimate motivator for some people, but it never hurts to get creative to shake things up.
Try some tactics like free lunch for sales meetings set in the week, or you can even let a seller have the last Friday off in the month if they hit their monthly sales numbers. Putting incentives in place will keep your sales reps focused and create a competitive and fun environment for your team. And when you are enjoying what you are doing, that’s when you can see great success.
One of the defining traits of great sales managers is their ability to coach. Sales is an evolving profession, and continuous learning is key to keeping your team competitive.
Regular coaching helps reps refine their skills and improve performance. Follow these coaching best practices:
Great sales cultures thrive on constant feedback. Foster a growth mindset by:
By positioning yourself as a mentor rather than just a manager, you’ll cultivate a team that’s eager to learn and improve.
Every company is defined by its culture, but the best companies focus on how their culture impacts their employees.
Along with money and benefits, company culture is highly emphasized as one of the most important factors for sales job seekers. Most sales leaders understand that culture should be a priority, but it's difficult to understand what a good sales culture looks and functions like.
Unlike sales, you can’t measure culture like you do sales volume, opportunities, and conversions. Create a culture that is team-oriented. Sales can easily become a competition between sellers, but it’s more important if your reps work towards achieving the team goal rather than personal ones. You want to create an environment where each team member is transparent about what their teammates are working on and wants to be a contributing member to help reach the team goal.
Here are some other qualities your company culture should consist of:
A sales manager’s time is split between meetings, coaching, and administrative tasks. To stay productive:
Every team has underperformers, but great sales managers know how to turn struggling reps into top performers.
As a manager, understand that this all starts with you. It’s up to you to create an environment where your sales team will succeed and enjoy every minute of it. It’s important that you understand your team so you can lead to being as successful as possible. Managing a sales team shares many of the same challenges as sales itself.
To lead effectively, consider these key principles:
Find your way as a sales leader by becoming the leader you always needed.
Sales management is both an art and a science. The most successful sales managers continuously refine their strategies, invest in coaching, and create a thriving company culture.
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